Author Talk: Mark Boonshoft, Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic

Join Historic Red Hook for this free program on Zoom by registering to receive a Zoom link at www.historicredhook.org/register. Following the American Revolution, it was a cliché that the new republic's future depended on widespread, informed citizenship. Yet, it took decades before even Northern states created the common schools--accessible, elementary education--that seemed necessary to create such a citizenry. This talk explores the political debates particularly in New York State that led to the creation of public schools and, in turn, the racialized democracy that characterized the nineteenth-century United States.